A Ganondorf POV from Chapter 17- Written in Blood. This has been heavily modified in order to avoid too many spoilers and because the original wasn't that good. However, I've always liked the idea of Ganondorf being a more complex villain such as we see in The Wind Waker. Since this scene had a similar aim, I've included it here.
27/3/18: Sorry about the bump. I know it's frowned on. I was messing around with the existing chapters and posted my latest story as a new chapter.
Written in Blood- The Price of War
The stench of blood hung heavy in the air. As Ganondorf surveyed the destruction around him, the air itself seemed to scream. The palace trembled, groaning as it tried to repress the harrowing memory of the slaughter that had taken place within its walls. King Nohansen lay where he'd fallen beside his chair, dried blood caking his lips and beard. The king's table had overturned, its contents now scattered across the tarnished marble floor. Ganondorf tried not to notice the other bodies littering the great hall of Hyrule Castle- the royal household, nobles, servants, courtiers, guards, court entertainers, and children. All of them struck down while they enjoyed the frivolous festivities of the palace court.
Such was the price of war.
He had as good as killed them all, even if his blade had not been the one doing most of the butchering. Ganondorf clenched his gauntleted hand, gripping his wretched sword so tight it seemed as though he might crush it. His eyes lingered on the small body in front of him, and then he looked away, refusing to let himself think of the boy's name. The very thought of what he'd done made Ganondorf feel sick.
Strange. Up until he'd killed that boy, he hadn't felt anything like this. He was doing the right thing. The right thing for his people, and for the family he had never known. Yet as he had gazed into the eyes of the frightened prince, the thrill of battle had all but fled, and all he felt was a strange revulsion- a weakness he could not afford to have.
Nabooru was right. You are a monster, a tiny voice whispered in his mind.
They deserved it, Ganondorf thought, quelling the doubt before it could take root in his mind. They cursed the Elin River, and now so much of the desert is barren. They watched as my people starved and they feasted on such opulence. The winds had always favored them, bringing rain to water their fertile fields, while it brought suffering and ruin to our land. No, they brought this fate upon themselves.
And they had. Ganondorf had committed this atrocious act out of a desperate desire to save his race from the curse that had befallen them. The same curse had killed his son amongst countless others. He was the King of the Gerudo, and he intended to save his people no matter the cost. If making a deal with a demon, and committing this act was what it took to steal the Triforce and break the curse on his people, then so be it.
Nabooru would not have agreed with him, but she was lost to him now. She was just another price to pay in a war that had cost so many lives. No doubt Koume and Kotake had dealt with her by now, and it was best not to think about what those two would do. Ganondorf had always known there would be a heavy price to pay, and all the Gerudo had known their part in this plan. Yet, as he glanced back down at the pitiful corpse at his feet, the boy's empty eyes still gazing up at him, some part of him wondered if he shouldn't have shown a little mercy.
The lingering sense of revulsion made Ganondorf's victory taste of ashes. He snarled, casting his sword to the floor where it clattered on the marble floor. Several Gerudo, garbed and veiled in the traditional clothing of their desert homeland, regarded him cautiously. They'd been checking the bodies scattered like dead leaves on the floor, looking to see if anyone had survived their attack on the feast.
It had seemed so simple. Earn the king's trust, bolster Nohansen's guard with people of his own choice, and then butcher the royal court as they stuffed themselves like pigs. It had been almost too easy to overwhelm most of the guards; most of them had been drunk on wine or ale.
The moblins and the lizalfos he'd brought into the castle, thanks to Koume and Kotake's handiwork, had entered the fray in the great hall. They were already fighting over who got first pickings of the dead, and even that was a bit much for Ganondorf's tastes. When he cast his sword aside, and it hit the bloodied floor, they too paused to regard him warily.
"My lord?" one of Ganondorf's lieutenants queried nervously.
"She's not here," he growled, disguising the cause of his simmering anger. "That little Nohansen brat was supposed to be here."
"I am certain she will be found," the woman offered. "Shall I send more search parties to look for her?"
"There's only one place to look. That neither she nor Lady Impa have been accounted for is not a coincidence. Stop them from gaining any means of escape, kill the damned horses if you have to, and find out what's taking Shinju so long to get the ocarina."
He'd still need that if his plans were to succeed. The guards he'd sent to retrieve it should have been back by now.
As his lieutenant signaled to two of her comrades to go and carry out Ganondorf's orders, several more Gerudo entered the hall. At their head, wearing an ornate collar beset with precious stones, was Aveil. She surveyed the desecrated hall with grim severity. There was a hint of dismay in her eyes.
"The children too?" Aveil asked as she came to a halt and offered Ganondorf a small nod. "Was that truly necessary, Ganondorf?"
"They were Hylian," Ganondorf replied without inflection.
"We could have trained them," Aveil pointed out cautiously. "Taught them our ways and-"
"They would have grown to despise us," Ganondorf interrupted with rising ire. He didn't want to discuss this.
"Can you be so sure?" Aveil asked, pushing the conversation further.
"Have you so easily forgotten what they did to us?" Ganondorf said, anger rising in his voice.
It was the right thing to do. Yet even as he told himself that, a small part of Ganondorf's soul didn't agree.
"None of us have, Ganondorf, nor can we, but don't you think this was a little excessive?"
"Perhaps," he allowed himself to agree. "But it had to be done."
"I hope you are right, for all our sakes," Aveil said, sounding worried.
Of course I'm right, Ganondorf thought irritably, even as that tiny voice in the back of his mind tried to tell him that Aveil had a point. Before he could reply, he heard a crackling cough. It was only faint, but he spotted the source in an instant.
One of the guards lay in a pool of his own blood, a gaping wound in his chest. That he'd survived this long was a wonder. His eyes had trouble focusing on Ganondorf, but he managed all the same, and his expression of one of utter hatred. He seemed to entirely forget the agony he was in as he gazed up at the Gerudo king.
"You bastard," he rasped. "You Goddess-damned bastard."
Is that the best insult you can come up with? Ganondorf thought, staring down at the man's pale and sunken face.
"Tell me, Hylian. Where are your Goddesses now?"
The Hylian coughed, and then managed hoarsely, "Preparing your grave."
Mildly amused, Ganondorf almost chuckled. He gestured for one his own guards who stood nearby, and then grabbed her halberd. Eyeing the weapons tip for a moment, he turned it and rammed its sharp tip straight into the man's heart. The unfortunate Hylian gasped, twitched, and then went still.
"Fool," he growled at the corpse. "They have forgotten you or else they would have stopped me by now."
He looked up to see Aveil watching him, disapproval clear in her eyes. Any further conversation was interrupted by several Gerudo who came running into the hall, prompting a brief outcry from several lizalfos who were busy devouring a platter of meat that had crashed to the floor during the initial commotion of Ganondorf's attack along with the rest of the table."
"My lord," one of the Gerudo came to a halt a few feet from him. "The ocarina is missing. The Hylians have been putting up a fight in the palace grounds, and several of our people reported seeing the princess and her nursemaid leaving the stables. They're headed towards the Castletown's southern gate."
"How did they manage to get passed you and all the way to the stables?" Ganondorf demanded, a sudden fury boiling inside of him.
A secret passage, he thought. Damn it.
He'd gone to a great deal of trouble to find every map of the castle's interior that he could so that this wouldn't happen. He'd also taken the time to study the interior of the palace, which wasn't so easy without attracting unwanted attention.
"Shall we send someone after her? I have already sent someone to block their escape and seal the southern gate."
"I'll deal with them myself," Ganondorf said irritably. If the ocarina was missing, he had no doubt that Impa had it. Perhaps she even intended to give it to the Order of the Sages, not that there were many devotees left, and the ones who dwelt in the Temple of Time were probably either dead or fleeing. No doubt by now, Ganondorf's army was already pouring into Castletown.
"Shall I send a company out with you?" Aveil asked.
"No," Ganondorf said brusquely. "I'll deal with Lady Impa and the Nohansen brat myself."
If only he could have killed her earlier, but doing so would not benefit his plans. He intended to use her as a puppet to placate Hyrule's provinces. If she was one of the ones destined to oppose him, as Koume and Kotake predicted, then he needed to find her and either control or kill her.
As for the Triforce, he knew what else he needed to gain access to it, and they were well on their way to Castletown by now.
He cast one last look at the bodies. The faces of those who'd fallen first were fixed in expressions of horror as, for the briefest instant, they realized what was happening to them.
"Deal with the bodies," he ordered Aveil. "But keep the heads of the royal household, including the king. I want them left as a message to Hyrule."
The look of revulsion on Aveil's face was brief but unmistakable. She hid it quickly, but not before Ganondorf had noticed. He'd have to keep an eye on her. It would be a shame if she had to dispose of her too.
He wouldn't let it come to that.
"Let the moblins do it," Ganondorf added. "It's more to their tastes than ours. When you're finished, burn what you can of the palace."
He ignored the flickering sense of revulsion in his gut, and that tiny voice that told him that Nabooru had been right. He was no longer the man she'd loved; he was a monster.
Retrieving his sword, he turned on his heel and headed for the tall doors at the end of the hall, stepping over corpses and heedless of the fact his cloak was trailing through blood.
In the distance, and amidst the rumbling thunder, he could still hear the terrible cacophony of war. Men screamed as they fought and died what the hands of people with whom, until not long ago, they had been sharing a table with.
Monsters were adding their cries to the din as they joined in the battle or feasted upon the dead. He ignored them, sprinting down a corridor and out onto a balcony from which he had easy access to the stables. He broke into a run, ignoring the cheers of his people, and even blasting a stalfos that didn't get out of the way in time, and made it to the stables.
The smell of blood carried amidst the smell of manure, horse and hay. The acrid stench of smoke from the many fires that had begun to consume parts of the castle- no doubt aided by some careless lizalfos- hung heavy in the air as well. The bodies of some of the stable workers lay on the floor amidst the corpses of their charges.
Ganondorf ignored them, heading straight for his black stallion. As he had ordered, the horse was already saddled and clad in its formidable armour. He led the horse back to the door of the stables, mounted, and charged into a night that was aglow with the rising flames from dozens of fires.
As he surveyed the destruction his army had caused, he allowed himself a small smile. The Triforce was as good as his; very little stood between him and that sacred artifact. The Sheikah were all but gone, destroyed in a civil war of their own making, the Order of the Sages was gone, save for the leader who would be found soon enough, and after tonight the Royal Family would no longer be a threat.
Certain of his victory, Ganondorf took off in pursuit of his quarry.
